“Then what’s your quest?” I asked curiously.
The Paragon rubbed his eyes and sighed. “I’m looking for someone. The information trail led me here to the Midwest, but my current source is proving to bemaddeninglytight lipped.”
“Who are you looking for?” I asked.
The Paragon shook his head, and for a second I could have sworn his appearance—the silvery hair, wrinkles, and beak-y nose—wavered. “I dare not say—not because I don’t trust you, but because I’ve gone through a great deal of peril to get this far, and I dare not riskanyoneoverhearing.”
I leaned back in my chair. “Okay.”
“Okay?” The Paragon peered in my direction, surprise flashing across his face. “You’re going to give up just like that?”
“In case you haven’t noticed, I already have plenty of issues to handle,” I said. “In particular, I’d like to figure out who keeps trying to kill me, and why the Night Realm hasn’t recovered at all. I don’t need to involve myself in your drama, too,” I said.
Wait. Couldn’t I use this as my chance? Even if the other monarchs are out of it, they still can’t lie!
“Huh. That’s admirably logical,” the Paragon said.
“Hey, Fell!” I said.
“What?” The Autumn King balefully glared at me over his teacup. “What doyouwant?”
“Are you the one who keeps trying to kill me?”
Fell pushed his nose up in the air. “I—” he started, but his words were cut off when his bones suddenly gave out, and he face planted in his carrot cake, getting frosting all over his face.
“No, no, no! Fell—Fell!” I stood up and stretched across the table to shake him by the shoulder.
Fell snored loudly.
I voiced my displeasure for several minutes as the Paragon watched in admiration.
“I’ve never heard someone so creatively use the term ‘hat’ before. Well done.” The Paragon politely clapped for me.
“Doanyof you know who’s trying to kill me?” I asked with zero hope.
Birch was too absorbed with his pity party, and Solis was snoring with Fell, so I didn’t think they even heard me. Verdant’s big eyes started to pool with tears. “Someone’s trying tokillyou?” she asked.
“Better watch out,” the Paragon said. “If you get her crying, there’s no stopping her.”
“It’s fine. What about you, Rime, do you know?” I tried not to hope too much, but what little bit I was nursing came crashing down when the Winter Queen shrugged.
“I heard of the attempts on your life—I assumed it was Fell,” she said.
“Did he ever say anything about it?” I asked.
“No.”
“That’s justgreat.” I sighed. “What do we do now?”
“We wait for them to sober up,” the Paragon said. “And then you all leave.”
“Didn’t you have any specific questions to ask them?”
“No. I didn’t really expect to get anything useful out of this meeting,” the Paragon said. “I mostly invited you all over because Fell wouldnotstop sniveling. Now—even if he doesn’t remember the tea—he’ll at least stop coming to me complaining about you.”
“Why am I not surprised?” I grumbled.
“It’s a ruthless time to be a fae.” The Paragon raised his teacup to his lips, then shook his head when he realized what he was doing, and poured out the tea on a nearby flower bush. “What about you? Did you learn anything?”
